A catheter or tube may be inserted into an internal cavity or organ etc., through, for example, a body orifice or through a surgical procedure, and may be used for venting, feeding, and/or drainage of air and/or liquids to and/or from the internal cavity or organ. Catheters are associated with a significant risk of infection and other related medical problems. For example, infections are often associated with the development of pathogenic microorganisms, or biofilms, on the catheter surface and/or on the wall of the internal organ or cavity.
A biofilm may be formed when microbe adhere to surfaces in aqueous environments and begin to excrete a slimy, glue-like substance that can anchor them to material such as metals, plastics, soil particles, medical implant materials, and tissue. A biofilm can be formed by a single microbe species, but more often biofilm may consist of many species of microbe, as well as fungi, algae, protozoa, debris and corrosion products. Essentially, biofilm may form on any surface exposed to microbe and some amount of water. Once anchored to a surface, biofilm microorganisms carry out a variety of detrimental or beneficial reactions (by human standards), depending on the surrounding environmental conditions. Conventional methods of killing microbe (such as antibiotics and disinfectants) are often ineffective with biofilm microbe. Furthermore, huge doses of anti-microbials are generally required to rid systems of biofilm microbe.
Known methods for treating and/or preventing catheter-associated infections include the insertion of catheters using aseptic techniques, the maintenance of the catheter using closed drainage, the use of special non-standard catheters, and the use of anti-infective agents. The use of anti-infective agents may include soaking the catheter prior to insertion in an anti-infective drug solution, binding anti-infective agents to the catheter surface, continuous irrigation of the catheter balloon with an anti infective solution, and the insertion of anti infective drugs into catheter collection bags.
However, the prior art methods may not be sufficiently concentrated in the correct areas for microbial inoculation of catheters, especially for long-term treatment. Furthermore, antibiotic toxicity may develop due to the use of antibiotic anti-infective drugs. Additionally, the cost of utilizing catheters that are equipped with anti-infective drugs or which are not standard catheters is high. Finally, the infusion of such drugs into a patient's body must be considered and monitored for every case individually, in view of potential patient reactions to drugs, weakened immune systems, etc.
It would be highly advantageous to have a catheter system that can use standard catheters and yet more effectively and cheaply inhibit the formation of biofilms without the usage of anti-infective agents.